Our only child is just off to college at Marquette, her bed at home still warm. But the starting gun has fired, the Honda roars to life, and we’re off in a cloud of dust.
Since our final distination is Michingan, the first stop in LaCrosse was exactly the wrong direction. But we were determined to take in Tim O’Brien, who was appearing with Darryl Scott at the sleepy LaCrosse Folk Fest. I’d never heard of this fest before but apparently it’s been going on for 30 years. This is the first year it was held down at Riverside Park. Nice venue, great weather. We only managed to snap a few phone pics. The O’Brien set was interesting. This is probably the 8th time I’ve seen him, the 2nd with Darryl. He plays with a lot of different combinations, his shows are always close to spectacular.
Given this small backwater venue, these two worked hard, played hard, the show had a gritty, ad-hoc feel to it. The crowd barely filled 60% of the tent (and we were worried on the way up about getting a seat), but they screamed and cheered mightily.
We did catch 3-4 other acts during the day, all interesting, but T.O. is operating at a whole different level.
The next day, Sunday, we drove all the way across the state and across the UP, made it to St. Ignace. On Monday we braved coal black storm clouds getting to Sutton’s Bay. Stayed in SB in a delightful B&B, the Korner Kottage, for 3 nights, Linda and Jim Monroe, proprietors extraordinaire. Excellent breakfast chefs too. This gallery includes a few shots of our bike ride on a TART trail (Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation Trails). This 17 mile paved section went all the way from Suttons Bay to west Traverse City. A very sweet pedal.
We timed the trip to meet up with old Boulder friends the Skovrons and Saffels, who were up in Leland. One night we put together a picnic at Peterson Park, high above Lake Michigan, looking west. In attendance, Goodes, Saffels, Skovrons, Bruce, Jim’s sister Annie and husband Greg. (I hope I got all that right.)
Check out the video at the end. ( They don’t even have to pay for FOOD !! )
Here’s a few random shots from around Leland, and Fish Town.
Final stop: Traverse City, our kind hosts Bob and Debbie Stuber. Bob is a LaCrosse native, Debbie hails from Cadillac. They just relocated to TC. Debbie was allegedly more “enthusiastic” about this lateral move than Bob, who “got with the program” seconds before being replaced by a younger man. They scored a very nice house in the suburbs, with a huge separate living area expressly for Tim and Eileen. We approved.
This gallery includes shots of a bike ride up Old Mission Peninsula, all the way to the Old Mission Lighthouse at the northern tip. We stopped for lunch at a MicroBrew Pub whose name escapes me. We had 40 miles in by the time we got home. The scenery looking out across Great Traverse Bay left us breathless. The water in the shallows a bright turquoise green, then a deep blue further out. Wind whipped up the whitecaps. The road meandered along the shore.
Also included are just a few shots of a really cool float of Boardman River. Bob has two yaks and a canoe. Debbie and I got the yaks. The river was full of yokels in rented yaks and tubes, having a good time and taking their time. It was hard to paddle thru some of these crowds.
